WeChat Reading is one of the most popular reading apps at present. Since its launch in 2015, it has developed rapidly with the slogan “Let reading no longer be lonely”. However, in the crowded domestic market of reading apps and devices, how can WeChat Reading break through and occupy the high ground? How can it become a national reading product? The author of this article made a detailed analysis report.

WeChat Reading was born in 2015, when the digital reading market was growing at its fastest pace. At that time, the mobile reading market was dominated by apps such as QQ Reading, iReader, Shuqi Novels, and Dangdang Reading, while companies such as Alibaba Literature, China Literature Group, iReader, and Migu Digital Media each had a seat.

Various types of mobile reading software and electronic devices have emerged in the market.

Also in 2015, I got my first Kindle reader. After my enthusiasm faded, it did not escape the fate of most Kindle readers - lying quietly in the corner, gathering dust.

Mobile phones occupy most of the fragmented time of ordinary people in a day. After experiencing Dangdang Reading and NetEase Cloud Reading, WeChat Reading has become my regular reading companion, and I use it to read books almost every week.

Why has WeChat Reading, which is backed by Tencent and China Literature and has carved out a niche in the market with its social fission and excellent user experience, received so many negative reviews recently? How can WeChat Reading overtake others and become the next national reading product?

This article is organized as follows:

1. Market Analysis
2. Product Analysis
3. User Analysis
4. Competitive product analysis
5. SWOT Analysis

Experience environment:

1. Xiaomi Mi 10 MIUI 11.0.7
2. WeChat Reading v4.6.5
3. iReader v7.32.0
4. Migu Reading v8.15.0

1. Market analysis

1.1 Current Status of Mobile Reading Market

Figure 1 China’s mobile reading market size from 2012 to 2019

According to iResearch Consulting's "China Mobile Reading Development Trend Research Report", China's mobile reading market size reached 20.49 billion in 2019, a year-on-year increase of 22.4%, and the growth rate continued to slow down.

On the one hand, the popularity of short videos and other entertainment modes since 2018 has diverted users' attention from mobile reading; on the other hand, the rise of free reading apps has slowed down the growth of the market size.

Figure 2 Revenue share of each business in China’s digital reading industry from 2012 to 2020

The main source of revenue for the digital reading industry is user subscription income, followed by copyright operations, advertising, electronic hardware, etc. In recent years, through the development of high-quality literary IP, the revenue share of the copyright operation segment has continued to increase.

The reason is that cultural and entertainment companies develop their own high-quality literary content and achieve secondary revenue in the form of film and television dramas, games, and animation. Taking the famous IP "Grave Robbers' Chronicles" as an example, various content forms such as series of movies, TV series, games, comics, etc. appeared in the market before and after.

1.2 Industry Development Trends

1.2.1 Free reading apps emerge suddenly to attract low-end users

According to Analysys Qianfan data, among the top 10 mobile reading applications with MAU of tens of millions in February 2020, free reading platforms accounted for half, namely Qimao Free Novels, Lianshang Literature Free Reading, Midu, Fanqie Free Novels, and Zhuishu Shenqi Free Edition, and their main content is online literature.

Free reading apps attract a large number of new users by being "free", generate traffic and generate revenue mainly in the form of advertising, thus grabbing part of the market share of paid apps.

1.2.2 5G+A technology boosts mobile reading experience

Mobile reading manufacturers remain enthusiastic about AI technology and tend to use machine learning to distribute content and create intelligent recommendations for each individual.

In the listening scene, AI voice reading serves as a supplement to real-person reading, and the reading experience still needs to be improved. Leading companies represented by Migu Reading have used 5G to launch a new rich media reading model of text + video.

1.2.3 Mobile reading platforms and content achieve cross-border marketing in new forms

Video platforms have become a new channel for promoting literary platforms. Mobile reading platforms such as Migu Reading, QQ Reading, and Tomato Novel have marketed their platforms and IPs in various forms such as promoting reading topics and recommending lists by filming short videos telling the contents of novels and opening short video accounts.

1.3 PESTLE Analysis

Table 1 PESTLE analysis of the digital reading industry

2. Analysis of WeChat Reading Products

2.1 Product Positioning

In 2015, WeChat Reading adopted the slogan “Let reading no longer be lonely” and positioned itself as “reading + social”. The product focuses on serious content and targets the niche market of WeChat users who prefer to read published books.

Because the competition in the online reading market is already very fierce and Tencent also has the cash cow product QQ Reading, WeChat Reading chose to open up the market from in-depth reading.

This market positioning fits in well with the advantages of WeChat’s acquaintance relationship chain, helping users achieve self-actualization needs while achieving social fission. In order to expand the user base, WeChat Reading has gradually expanded its content boundaries to online literature, comics, and WeChat public account articles to meet the reading needs of more users.

At present, it has become a social comprehensive reading software based on WeChat relationship chain, providing reading enthusiasts with massive books, novels, comics, and public account content.

2.2 Product Function Structure

Figure 3 WeChat Reading Function Structure

The above picture shows the functional structure of WeChat Reading, which is mainly divided into five modules: reading, search, personal management, community and commercial functions.

2.3 Product Function Analysis

Product functions are derived from user usage scenarios and needs. The KANO model defines three levels of customer needs:

1. Basic requirements
2. Expected demand
3. Excitement needs

WeChat Reading features:

1. The function of e-book reading belongs to the basic demand;
2. Functions such as expressing thoughts or underlining when reading meet the expectation needs;
3. Recommending books that friends are reading and book rankings based on social relationships satisfies users' desire for excitement and surprise, and is also a competitive advantage that differentiates products from competitors.

There’s no denying that reading has always been a lonely activity.

A person and a book, without sound or pictures, quietly have a one-on-one exchange of ideas with the author through black and white words. After reading a book, you may be moved or melancholy, but there are no friends around who can empathize with you.

WeChat Reading is determined to break this loneliness. The user experience of "making reading no longer lonely" is not only a product goal, but also one of the core competitive advantages it wants to build.

There have been many analyses on the functions of WeChat Reading, and its excellent reading function has also been well received by users. Here the author analyzes the social factors of product functions based on its social positioning.

First of all, WeChat Reading has four tabs: "Discover", "Bookshelf", "Take a Look", and "Me", three of which have traces of socialization.

2.3.1 Discovery

The Discover section displays information in the form of cards, which show various operational activities and books that friends are reading or listening to. Here is a brief analysis of the "Friends Are Reading" function.

Figure 4 WeChat Reading-Discovery Section

The "Friends Reading" card is a very clever way to recommend books. It meets two user needs:

1. Solve the problem that users don’t know what books to read;
2. Satisfy users' curiosity to know other people's privacy.

When it comes to the problem that users don’t know what books to read, the book recommendation algorithms are already quite mature. Whether it’s based on “reading history,” “interest recommendations,” or “similar books to a certain book,” they all revolve around the user’s own interest preferences.

“Friends are reading” mainly recommends books that the users you follow are currently reading. The users you follow are mainly WeChat friends and other strangers you follow manually.

Its unique features are:

1. WeChat friends include a person's social circle. Everyone's social circle changes with the growth stage and social status. In the process of a person moving from school to society, the friends in his social circle also transition from school students to professionals. Their reading choices and tastes are also updating. "Friends are reading" will directly reflect the reading atmosphere of the user's circle and can change with the changes in the user's social circle.
2. The books that "Friends are Reading" are endorsements made by friends through real actions. Users can easily transfer their trust from friends to books. Books that match their interests and are being read by friends are often more easily accepted by users than recommendations distributed by machine algorithms.
3. Promote social behavior. When users find that their friends have the same book preferences as themselves, they are likely to participate in the reading and interact with their friends, making comments or liking the posts. The accumulated social relationship value will help the product retain users.

2.3.2 Take a look

Figure 5 WeChat Reading "Take a look" + "Friends' thoughts"

The main function of the Kankan section is to recommend information flow of WeChat public account articles. The entrance to "Friends' Ideas" is placed in the upper left corner of the page, which is relatively hidden. It is the result of long-term product iteration.

The reason for weakening the entrance position may be that users pay little attention to other people's reading ideas and generate few social activities (no data support, only speculation). It may also be because users’ “friends” generate ideas infrequently and update them less frequently.

This function is similar to the logic of WeChat Moments. Users can see the ratings, ideas, book reviews and other dynamics generated by their friends during reading, and it supports functions such as likes, comments and sharing (retweets, quotes, private messages to friends, etc.). The main purpose is to encourage users to engage in social activities while reading.

However, from my personal experience, users rarely like or comment on "Friends' Ideas". There may be some reasons for this:

1. Users can only see comments, book reviews, corresponding books, and a certain paragraph in "Friends' Thoughts". Without reading the context, it is difficult to effectively interact with friends' ideas;
2. Thoughts are a private product, and users may not be interested in the books their friends are reading and therefore not interact with them.

2.3.3 Me

Figure 6 Attention + Reading Ranking

The two main social functions in the "Me" section are reading rankings and following.

Users can use the "Follow" function to manage the users they follow, which is also a function to control the degree of socialization.

Users can freely choose the WeChat friends they want to follow, and can also manage the ones they already follow to ensure that the friend updates they receive, such as “Friends are reading” and “Friends’ thoughts”, come from people who are truly interested.

There are two types of people who follow:

1. WeChat friends;
2. When reading a book, you can see other users' opinions or book reviews, and follow them if you become interested.

The communities created by most reading products are weak-relationship communities where users do not know each other. However, WeChat Reading combines strong and weak relationships to enhance its social value.

The reading ranking list uses a simple digital incentive method, taking advantage of users' competitive psychology to motivate them to extend their use of the product, which is a way to increase user activity and stickiness.

3. User analysis

3.1 User Distribution

The majority of WeChat Reading users are under 40 years old (91.9%), and those under 24 years old are mostly students (accounting for 22.60%).

Due to economic reasons, student users mainly obtain free cards by participating in operational activities and are the main force in product promotion; users aged 24 to 40 who are already working are the main source of subscription income.

Figure 7 Age ratio of WeChat reading users in November 2019

From the perspective of cities, users are mainly distributed in super first-tier (15.8%), first-tier (45.8%) and second-tier cities (16.3%). Users in developed regions have better economic conditions, relatively higher cultural levels and higher spiritual needs.

Figure 8: Distribution of WeChat Reading users by city in November 2019

Users' consumption capacity basically conforms to the skewed distribution, and users are concentrated in the middle and upper-middle consumers. The reason for this is that WeChat Reading’s initial user positioning was serious content readers, and the cultural level and corresponding economic level of this user group were relatively high.

Correspondingly, this user group will have higher requirements for the quality of product content and user experience, and will be more sensitive to advertisements and low-quality content.

Figure 9: Consumption capacity distribution of WeChat reading users in November 2019

3.2 User Evaluation Analysis

Figure 10 WeChat reading ratings in July 2020 (Source: Zen Master)

Figure 10 is a user review of the WeChat Reading iOS version, sourced from a Zen master. WeChat Reading’s 5-star rating is as high as 92.8%, and the 1-star ratio is 1.1%.

Figure 11 A selection of 1-star reviews from users from May to July 2020 (Source: Zen Master)

By observing users' 1-star reviews over the past two months, we found that users' main complaints were centered on the commercialization of WeChat Reading: frequent advertisements during reading that reduced the reading experience, and unlimited cards that did not allow free online reading.

Figure 12: Selection of 3-star user reviews in July 2020 (Source: Zen Master)

In addition to the commercialization model issue, optimization suggestions put forward by users also include voice listening to books, such as the AI ​​voice reading still lacks emotion and has strange punctuation.

4. Competitive product analysis

4.1 Identification of competing products

According to the application list of iResearch Qianfan, WeChat Reading currently ranks among the top in the field of mobile reading.

The author will select leading mobile reading products with similar business types in the same vertical field and solving the same needs for the same target users as competitors for analysis.

Figure 13 Top 10 mobile reading platforms by MAU from January 2019 to February 2020

After years of accumulation, the iReader app is second to none in terms of user size and book copyright resources. Its product book resources include published content, online articles, comics, audiobooks, etc. According to iResearch Qianfan, the number of monthly active users of the Zhangyue APP reached 59.7497 million in February 2020.

QQ Reading ranks in the top two in market share, but both QQ Reading and WeChat Reading are products operated by China Literature Group. The two apps have different tones, product positioning, user positioning, and content tendencies. They are in a complementary relationship rather than a market competitive relationship.

In terms of user size, Migu Reading APP ranks third, and its content coverage is the same as WeChat Reading and Zhangyue app. Therefore, the final competitors are determined to be Zhangyue app and Migu Reading.

4.2 Business Distribution Comparison

Table 2 Business distribution comparison

Table 1 is the business distribution table of WeChat Reading and two competing apps. The following is a comparative analysis of four aspects: e-books, audiobooks, community, and commercialization.

4.2.1 E-books

From the perspective of e-book business, WeChat Reading’s content includes published books, online literature, comics and public account articles.

WeChat Reading initially focused on serious content from publications, but later introduced a large amount of online literature, comics, and public account resources in order to expand its user base. Currently, the volume of online literature resources has exceeded that of serious content.

The public account column integrates WeChat public account resources to meet the fragmented reading needs of some users. iReader and Migu Reader also have online literature, publications, comics, magazines and other content, and the content tone of both is more inclined towards novels and online literature.

For reading products, content resources are a crucial factor, even more important than the product's user experience.

In terms of resources, the operator and copyright provider of WeChat Reading is China Literature Group. China Literature has a reserve of 12.2 million works and is the company with the most digital content resources in China. Therefore, WeChat Reading has obvious resource advantages.

WeChat Reading currently has approximately 500,000 books on its shelves, and has more published book resources than other applications.

The iReader APP has more than 500,000 digital contents, covering categories such as books, magazines, comics, audiobooks, etc. It is particularly rich in online literary resources. It owns online literature platforms such as Hongshu Chinese Network, Quyue Chinese Network, Youle Chinese Network, and iReader Novel Network (quoted from "iReader Technology (603533): Fine-tuning content and traffic operations to create a second growth curve").

Migu Reading Platform gathers more than 600,000 genuine books (quoted from Migu News "Can we still read books immersively in the era of holographic panoramic reading?").

4.2.2 Listening to books

The audiobook business is a new growth point in the digital reading field recently. In 2018, the scale of China's audiobook market reached 4.63 billion yuan, and the user scale was 385 million people.

According to iResearch Consulting's white paper on mobile reading development trends, players in the audiobook market include five categories: comprehensive online audio platforms, vertical audiobook platform audiobook businesses, knowledge payment platform audiobook businesses, and reading-related WeChat public account audiobook businesses.

All three apps have now added the function of listening to books, inviting hosts or using AI technology to help users free their eyes by telling stories or having AI read aloud, meeting more user usage scenarios and increasing user usage time.

Table 3 Comparison of audiobook services

iReader’s audiobook content includes online literature, publications, and other audiobooks and book explanations. In addition, iReader also has a wealth of high-quality course content, which can attract a group of young and middle-aged white-collar users who want to improve themselves. It has achieved a good balance between leisure content and serious content, covering a wider range of users.

In 2019, iReader actively expanded the form of its works and has now officially cooperated with蜻蜓FM and more than a dozen top domestic audio recording teams, including 729 Sound Studio, Beidou Penguin Studio, Haitian Studio, and well-known voice actors in the circle such as Shen Lei, Zhang Xin, Shang Hong, Hong Haitian, etc.

Migu Reading also covers novels, publications, audio books and storytelling. At the same time, both iReader and Migu Reading have opened children's audiobook channels to meet children's reading needs and parent-child interactive education needs.

In addition, Migu Reading has opened a party and government audiobook channel that specializes in explaining policies and legal systems to meet the needs of party members and the general public to learn about the law and understand policies.

In comparison, the content range of audio books on WeChat Reading is relatively small, mainly novels and publications. The format is AI voice reading and real-person narration. Book-reading services are provided by professional institutions and professional book-readers.

4.2.3 Commercialization

The forms of commercialization in the mobile reading industry include: paid reading, advertising revenue, hardware sales, user rewards, copyright appreciation, and book publishing and distribution.

The commercialization models reflected in reading apps are mainly the first four. Let’s first compare the membership charging models of the three apps.

4.2.3.1 Membership Subscription Comparison

Table 4 Comparison of VIP pricing and benefits

Figure 14 Comparison of user consumption level distribution

We know that free new user acquisition → user retention → conversion and monetization is a common monetization process for Internet products. iReader and Migu Reading have cultivated stable paid subscription habits among long-term users.

WeChat Reading is currently still in the stage of attracting new users and retaining existing ones, mainly retaining users and achieving profitability by giving away free unlimited cards + advertising.

(1) iReader

The benefit that attracts users to iReader membership is a free membership library of 100,000 books. For most users, 100,000 free digital resources are sufficient to meet their daily reading needs.

For authors who lack traffic and popularity, posting their works in the free zone is also an opportunity to gain exposure. Heavy users who like to read online literature casually in their spare time are more likely to accept a monthly subscription of 15 yuan.

It is worth mentioning that iReader has launched a free listening card with a monthly subscription fee of 5 yuan, which divides users into audiobook users and reading users. The audiobook business will become the next revenue growth point for iReader.

(2) Migu Reading

Migu’s membership benefits are richer, and the ability to read all books without distinction without having to pay again is a major attraction.

However, by analyzing Table 4, we can find that the user consumption level of Migu Reading is concentrated in low-middle consumption and medium consumption. In general, the user consumption level is WeChat Reading>Ipanmao Reading>Migu Reading. The reason is that in the past, Migu Reading's 9-yuan package strategy for the entire site attracted a large number of sinking users.

The current price of 25 yuan per month places high demands on user consumption levels, which may lead to the loss of some low-end users.

The main promotional 2-year card priced at 198 yuan also requires high user loyalty because users need to consider whether the quality of works on the Migu site will be stable or even improved within two years. On the other hand, users need to bear the opportunity cost of becoming members of other products (generally speaking, users will not subscribe to membership of multiple platforms providing similar services at the same time), so Migu Reading's pricing strategy needs to be optimized.

(3) WeChat Reading

After using free unlimited cards to attract new users and retain existing users in the early stage, the role of free unlimited cards is mainly to cultivate user usage habits and motivate users to promote products to attract new users and lose users.

The paid unlimited card mainly promotes a continuous membership at 19 yuan/month, with benefits including free publications + 20% off on online literature, no ads and other benefits. There are also daily, weekly, quarterly and annual card models.

By comparing the utility of free and paid cards, it is found that the user value of paid unlimited cards is not much different from that of free cards, mainly because of the added benefits such as no ads and special fonts.

If you only want to use advertising as a factor to get users to switch to payment cards, the appeal will be very low. Taking video software as an example, users become video members not only to avoid the first few minutes of advertisements, but more for the free film sources and the privilege of watching more episodes in advance. Therefore, price-sensitive users on WeChat Reading are likely to continue the habit of sharing to get free cards.

Among users with higher economic levels and who focus on reading experience, they can be divided into two groups: those who prefer serious literature and those who prefer online literature.

For heavy users who prefer publications, paid cards may be an attractive option; for non-book enthusiasts, the content of publications is relatively difficult, and the reading time and frequency of most users are low. The short-time modes such as daily cards and weekly cards launched by WeChat Reading can take care of the needs of this long-tail user group.

For online literature readers, the benefit of the payment card stated by the app, "20% discount on online literature", is unattractive compared to the monthly fee of 19 yuan. Users who open a membership often dislike extra charges. The name "Unlimited Card" will mislead users into thinking that they have unlimited free reading. When they find out that there are charges, their dislike will increase and affect renewal.

In addition, through the author's experience, it is found that a considerable portion of online articles are free of charge. It is recommended to explain this to enhance users' awareness of their rights and interests.

It is recommended that WeChat Reading adjust and supplement the fees and benefits of membership cards, such as:

• Increase the difference in benefits between free cards and paid cards: Use data modeling to find the relationship between price and number of subscribers, and give paid cards more price discounts to achieve maximum benefits.
• Consider offering more online article discounts to attract cardholders, explain the ratio of free and paid online articles, and mark the books for users to understand before reading.

summary

In terms of membership subscription:

1. iReader's membership benefits are very attractive, and its pricing is in line with the user's overall consumption level and market positioning;
2. Migu Reading offers the greatest membership benefits, but the membership threshold is high, which does not match the user's consumption level and may easily lead to the loss of some low-end users.
3. The membership benefits of WeChat Reading are more attractive to serious readers, but it has no competitive advantage compared with other online novel apps. The pricing and benefits of paid unlimited cards need to be improved.

4.2.3.2 Other modes

Table 5 Comparison of business models

In addition to paid reading, the commercialization models of the iReader app and Migu Reading are more diversified.

• iReader mainly sells the hardware device ireader e-book reader, while Migu Reader reached a strategic cooperation with Amazon Kindle in 2017 and launched the Amazon Kindle X Migu Reader. Perhaps inspired by its predecessors, WeChat Reading has also launched an ink screen version of the app to support manufacturers such as Onyx and Hanwang Boyue to build a WeChat reading ecosystem.
• Advertising is one of the common commercialization methods of the three apps. The frequency and forms of advertising on iReader and Migu Reader are more, such as splash screen ads, third-party app and website video ad diversions, video ads, banner ads, etc.; WeChat Reader has relatively fewer ads, appearing every 30 minutes during reading.
• Others: During JD.com's 618 event, iReader opened a shopping guide channel for JD.com; recently, Migu Reading launched an IP peripheral sales model and cooperated with Mango TV to customize and sell the official cosmetics of "Sisters Riding the Wind and Waves".

Summary: WeChat Reading’s commercial model is somewhat simple, and the advertising space and frequency of advertisements are lower than those of the other two apps. Because WeChat Reading is still in the stage of attracting new users and retaining new users, it needs to provide a good user experience to accumulate user loyalty.

4.3 Development History

Table 6 Comparison of product development history

The above is the development history of WeChat Reading, iReader and Migu Reading, using red, green and blue to distinguish product business iterations, cooperation and market operation activities.

4.3.1 Product iteration

4.3.1.1 Similarities

In the process of product business development and functional iteration, the development paths of the three APPs are basically the same. In the first one to two years after launch, we will polish the e-book reading function and optimize the user experience of basic functions.

Later, we developed the listening book function, including two modes: machine voice reading and audiobooks, striving to improve the anthropomorphic experience of voice reading and the richness of audiobook content, with the aim of meeting more user usage scenarios and increasing user usage time.

As the number of their respective users continues to increase, the three apps have expanded their content boundaries, introducing different types of content resources such as online literature, comics, magazines, etc., to create a comprehensive reading platform. What is more unique is that WeChat Reading has integrated WeChat public account resources, which can be regarded as a unique innovation.

4.3.1.2 Differences

iReader and Migu Reader focus on audiobook business:

• iReader started developing its audiobook business in 2016 and reached a cooperation with Qingting FM;
• In 2017, iReader launched an audio channel in its product;
• In 2018, iReader began to import and reserve a large number of high-quality genuine audio content such as audio novels, crosstalk and storytelling, and high-quality courses;
• In 2019, we produced thousands of audio works and held the first iReader Audiobook Festival, which included audiobooks and online audio courses.
• In the third quarter of 2019, iReader Technology and Sogou signed a strategic agreement to use AI technology to develop and produce audio content; while Migu Reading used 5G to launch audiobooks with the highest sound quality.

WeChat Reading has not made much progress in the audiobook business.

4.3.2 Operation

The operation stages are divided into attracting new customers, retaining and activating customers, and finally realizing monetization. The three apps each have their own advantages in attracting new customers.

WeChat Reading’s most important strategy for attracting new users is to rely on the WeChat relationship chain to achieve social fission growth. In just four years since its launch, the number of registered users has exceeded 200 million. The success of its strategy depends on three points:

1. WeChat Reading's excellent user experience, rich content resources and early model of giving away book coins for reading have created a good product reputation.
2. The basic logic of various operational activities in the welfare field is to use free e-books, unlimited card time and other benefits as incentives to guide users to share links with their WeChat contacts. This strategy runs through the stages of attracting new users, retaining existing users, and recalling lost users.
3. Understanding user psychology. The incentive of obtaining unlimited cards alone is not enough to make users actively send links. After all, there are many users who do not want to disturb others. The key point of changing their mentality is to meet the users' needs for self-realization and respect. For example, users participate in the “buy one, get one free” campaign not to share WeChat Reading or a book, but to demonstrate their good taste and love of reading.

The growth strategies of Migu Reading and Zhangyue are different from those of WeChat Reading. Migu Reading relies on the traffic advantage of mobile phones to attract new users through activities such as free traffic for registering the APP and cash for sharing the APP, but it does not help retain users.

iReader has been online for eight years and is currently focusing on creating a cultural circle to achieve its goal of producing and disseminating high-quality works and improving readers' reading quality.

One of its ways of acquiring customers is by operating official accounts on new media such as Douyin to produce short videos on reading topics to attract fans to divert traffic to its APP. The account has a considerable number of fans.

Figure 15 Zhangyue-Douyin video account

4.4 Data Analysis

Table 7 Analysys Qianfan application data indicators in November 2019

The above data is taken from the data indicators of Analysys Qianfan in November 2019. Due to the lack of access to the latest data, only the general situation is analyzed:

4.4.1 Active Users and Industry Penetration

The number of active users of iReader and Migu Reader is in the tens of millions, with a high industry penetration rate. Because both products have been in operation for nearly ten years, they have the first-mover advantage, the products have entered the mature stage, and they have accumulated a large number of users in the early stage.

WeChat Reading was launched in 2015 when mobile reading was booming. The market structure has basically been formed, and it has opened up the situation by relying on its niche market positioning of in-depth reading and social fission.

Although online literary resources, comics, audiobooks and other content were added later, with the big brothers such as iReader, QQ Reading and Migu Reading setting a good example, and free reading products such as Qimao and Fanqie APP occupying the lower-end user market, WeChat Reading’s competitive advantage in the online literature reader market is not obvious.

4.4.2 Next Month Retention

The next month retention rates of iReader and WeChat Reading are relatively high, while Migu Reading is far inferior to the former two:

1. On the one hand, it is because iReader and WeChat Reading have excellent product experience and high-quality content resources, providing good user value;
2. On the other hand, it is inseparable from rich operational activities. For example, iReader has a complete growth system and points system to improve user stickiness, activity and loyalty.

WeChat Reading’s activities, such as reading rankings, reading teams, and sharing links to receive unlimited cards, which rely on its social nature, are also effective means to encourage users to continue using the product.

4.4.3 Industry Monopoly

Industry exclusivity rate refers to the proportion of users who only download this APP and do not download other similar products to the total number of users in the industry.

Considering the industry penetration rate of active users, iReader's active users account for 18.3% of the total industry users, while 7.6% of industry users choose to only use the iReader APP, that is, nearly 40% of iReader users only use iReader, which shows that iReader has a group of loyal fan users.

WeChat Reading is similar. Although its industry penetration rate of active users is only 2.9%, its market share has reached 1.1%, indicating that less than 30% of users are very satisfied with WeChat Reading and do not use other similar products.

Migu Reading has a high market penetration rate (11.9%), but a very low industry monopoly rate (1.2%), indicating that a large proportion of its users are also users of other products and have low loyalty. Migu Reading faces fierce competition from similar products.

4.4.4 Average number of daily activations and average daily usage time per person

WeChat Reading's performance in both items is lower than that of iReader and Migu Reading. This may be because a considerable number of WeChat Reading users prefer published books. Reading serious content requires a higher environment, and reading is relatively boring, which leads to lower performance in these two indicators.

5. SWOT Analysis of WeChat Reading

Table 8 SWOT analysis

Overall, the UI design of WeChat Reading is very clean and simple, unlike other reading products that are dazzling.

As a mobile reading app, WeChat Reading offers a smooth reading experience, complete functions, and simple and reasonable interactions, making it an object of imitation and learning for many reading apps.

5.1 Product Positioning

The social value created by WeChat Reading's positioning of social reading will help retain users.

Functions such as checking "What Friends Are Reading", "Reading Rankings", "Today's Reading", and "Friends' Thoughts" are WeChat's innovative social functions that serve the social positioning and aim to increase user activity.

5.2 Operation

Currently, the main operational goal of WeChat Reading is to attract new users and promote the product by relying on users to share links to obtain unlimited cards.

However, it seems that this growth method has passed its explosive growth period. As time goes by, users’ interest in participating in activities will decrease. We suggest adding new promotion methods, such as cooperating with other product lines within the group and offering WeChat Reading Unlimited Card as one of the benefits of membership of other products.

In addition, the operational focus should be shifted to user retention and improving user retention rate.

5.3 Commercially

WeChat Reading currently relies mainly on book payments, unlimited paid cards and advertising revenue. WeChat Reading also combines both free and paid app models.

For price-sensitive users, we encourage them to share and give them free unlimited cards to tap into their advertising monetization value and product promotion value.

As mentioned above, the benefits of paid cards are not significantly superior to those of free cards, and the "20% discount on online literature" offer is not attractive to the huge number of online literature readers. The benefits and prices of paid cards need to be improved and adjusted.

In short, WeChat Reading is currently facing great competitive pressure. Reading is not a necessity for many people, and the frequency of reading is not high.

In the limited market, WeChat Reading has to face not only old products such as iReader, Migu, and Shuqi, but also the rising free novel companies such as Qimao and Fanqie, which are competing for users. It is still a long way to go for WeChat Reading to create the next national-level reading product.

Author: Chen Weiyu

Source: ChenWeiyu

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